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Risk Is Your Business

It’s March. Chances are there’s an NCAA men’s basketball tournament pool being conducted in your office right now. If you’re in it, good luck! There are a number of them here in our office. (You want to see my picks click here.) It’s estimated that $2.5 billion changes hands over this single event. That’s quite […]

Selling Safety to the C-Suite

To run an effective safety program, you need to be an enthusiastic booster of safety.  However, enthusiasm won’t win over management—you need to make the business case for safety as well. Management will readily agree that safety is important, and they know that they have a moral–and legal–obligation to maintain a safe workplace.  But sometimes […]

Juggling Act: When Work and Special-Needs Parenting Collide

By Tammy Binford It’s often easy for employers to be understanding when workers occasionally need to duck out of work early for a meeting at school or a trip to a child’s doctor. It happens to nearly every working parent once in a while. But what about an employee whose child has some kind of […]

Medical Clinic Cited for FMLA Violations, Ordered to Pay Back Wages

The U.S. Department of Labor has cited Houston Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic, LLP, for multiple violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and has ordered the clinic to pay $17,390 in back wages and other expenses. A DOL investigation found that when an eligible HENTC employee returned from FMLA leave, the company placed […]

LGBT

Deciphering the feds’ changing position on LGBT employment protections under Title VII

by Molly DiBianca In a memo issued on October 4, 2017, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally declared that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit discrimination based on transgender status. The memo directly conflicts with the position of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has long argued that […]

An Internship of Olympic Proportions!

A University of Connecticut journalism student had an exciting and successful internship at the Winter Olympics thanks to her own research, her college experience, great communication by her employer, and a job description that said “expect the unexpected.” After completing an internship at the NBC affiliate in Hartford two summers ago, senior UCONN journalism student […]

Bill Making Transit Parity Permanent to Be Introduced

A bill to restore parity between mass transit and qualified parking benefits will be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., she announced Feb. 10. The limits, dictated by tax Code Section 132, have been unequal since that part of the tax Code was written, although Congress several times […]

The Basics of E-Verify

E-Verify is a system that checks the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases using the information from Section 1 of the I-9 form. Employers initiate the E-Verify query within 3 business days of the start date of employment. Right now, it is only used for newly-hired employees, unless you’re covered by […]

‘I’ve Learned How to Manage Intermittent Leave Abuse’

Has anybody out there had problems with intermittent leave? HR manager Barbara Dahlen asked. Her audience’s response at the recent SHRM Annual Convention and Exposition in New Orleans was loud and long. “Oh, yes!” It took her a couple of years to figure things out, she says. “You can’t fix intermittent [leave] abuse overnight. But […]

EEO-1 Revisions: What You Need to Know … And Have to Do

A decades-old government report, due each September and covering 50 million workers, finally gets revised. Here’s what you have to do, starting this fall: Next week marks the start of September. And that marks kids back in school, leaves turning … and the annual EEO-1 Report. This report to the federal government is due by […]